Author Archives: Tom

Why do these guys write about football?

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houston_chronicle sports logo 111007 As if on cue, Houston Chronicle sportswriters Richard Justice and John McClain are all jolly about the Texans first winning season and Texans owner Bob McNair’s decision to retain head coach Gary Kubiak for at least another season.

Of course, Justice is utterly oblivious to the fact that he was calling for McNair to fire Kubiak a little over a month ago. Does he not read his own posts?

Both Justice and McClain change their view of the Texans based on the vagaries of each game rather than any meaningful analysis of the team’s personnel and management relative to their competition. Apparently, that latter task takes to much work.

Just another of the increasing number of reasons to ignore the Chronicle and rely on the far superior analysis on the Texans that bloggers such as such as Stepanie Stradley, Lance Zerlein and Alan Burge provide.

Understanding Adoption

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One of the most discouraging aspects of the societal tide of resentment and scapegoating that has permeated the corporate criminal prosecutions since the demise of Enron has been the utter lack of perspective regarding the horrendous human cost of those prosecutions.

Even the horrendous financial cost of those prosecutions seems easier to confront.

A stark example of the human cost is what happened to Ken Lay’s family, who endured the decline of a loving father and grandfather as he defended himself against dubious charges that in a less-heated climate would likely never have been pursued.

Equally barbaric is the reprehensible 24-year prison sentence assessed to former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, whose family has been deprived of their father for over three years now and is threatened to be without him for most of the rest of his life.

But the family that arguably paid the steepest cost from the wave of unjust corporate prosecutions was the family of Jamie Olis, the former mid-level Dynegy executive who was thrown to the prosecutorial wolves by his employer and then sentenced to a ludicrously excessive 24 plus-year prison term for his involvement in a structured finance transaction for which he profited not one dime.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately threw out that sentence, which resulted in a still-too-harsh six-year re-sentencing. Olis was finally paroled last year and reunited with his wife and young daughter, who literally grew up visiting her father in prison.

But even in the face of such inhumanity, the human spirit perseveres.

Throughout the Olis family’s ordeal, Jamie’s father — Bill Olis — stood out as a rock of stability and common sense.

Whether it was attending the myriad of hearings in Jamie’s case in Houston, or escorting Jamie’s wife and daughter the hundreds of miles to visit Jamie in far-off prisons, or lending moral support to other families who were enduring similar injustices, Bill Olis projected a sense of calm perspective that was contagious to all who came in contact with him.

He had much to be bitter about in regard to what the federal government did to his son and family, but Bill Olis never gave in to bitterness. He was a quintessential Christian gentleman and nothing that the government did to his family could change that.

Throughout his son’s darkest times, Bill remained confident that he and his family would ultimately be reunited with Jamie. Yeah, the government is powerful, but no earthly force was going to destroy Bill Olis’ family.

As a result, Ellen Podgor of the White Collar Crime Prof Blog re-named her “Collar for the Best Parent Award” to the “Bill Olis Best Parent Award” because — in the category of a parent supporting an imprisoned child — “no one comes close to Bill Olis.”

What was not well known through all of this was that Bill Olis was slowly fading away physically during his son’s imprisonment. Bill had an oxygen unit with him almost constantly as he tended to his family’s needs throughout their ordeal.

No big deal for Bill. Mere failing health was not going to stop Bill Olis from being present when his son was released from prison last year. He was there embracing Jamie with the rest of the family, oxygen tank and all.

With the work of reuniting his son with his family done, Bill Olis died over this past weekend. I understand from a family friend that Jamie was able to spend most of Bill’s final two weeks with him, which I know Bill enjoyed immensely. He adored his son.

The Olis family story is a remarkable one and frankly far more interesting than the government’s dishonest case against Jamie.

Years ago, Bill Olis married a single Korean mother and adopted her young son. He provided his wife and son a stable and loving home, and the family flourished. His son excelled in school, obtained advanced degrees in both business and law, and embarked upon a successful career in corporate finance.

And when the government targeted the son as a sacrificial lamb for the anti-business mob, Bill Olis spent his last days in this world supporting his son every step of the way and making sure that he returned to his wife and daughter.

Then he passed away.

A Christian minister friend once observed to me that a good way to embrace what is good about the Christian spirit is through understanding the nature of adoption.

Bill Olis was living proof of the truth of that observation.

2009 Weekly local football review

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Pollard recovery (AP Photo/Dave Einsel; previous weekly reviews for this season are here).

Texans 34 Patriots 27

The Texans (9-7) finished off their eighth season in grand style by beating the mostly-trying Patriots (10-6) with an impressive 21 point 4th quarter comeback.

The win wasn’t enough to propel the Texans into the playoffs, but it was enough to give the franchise it’s first winning record. In Texansland, that’s a major accomplishment.

There was much to like about the Texans’ performance in this game. WR Jacoby Jones showed heretofore unexhibited resilience by making several key plays down the stretch after muffing a pass that was returned by the Patriots for a TD. The Texans’ defense forced the interception that set up the go ahead TD by applying pressure on Brady and scored another TD on a Patriots’ fumble in the end zone after the Texans offense failed to score in close. The Texans’ nascent rushing attack again looked good as previously fourth-team RB Arian Foster reeled off 120 yds on 20 carries and 2 TD’s. And QB Matt Schaub completed his first injury-free season in three seasons with the Texans by emerging as one of the most productive passers in the NFL.

Texans’ owner Bob McNair will almost certainly retain head coach Gary Kubiak, although he is the only coach in the NFL who has not made the playoffs or been fired during the four seasons he has served as head coach of the Texans. Nevertheless, the Texans have steadily improved under Kubiak and the players clearly play hard for him, as Sunday’s 21-point comeback reflected.

Moreover, McNair is unlikely to break the bank to hire one of the "free agent" coaches in waiting, particularly given the uncertain nature of the stalled collective bargaining negotiations between the NFL owners and the NFL Players Association.

So, expect more of the same from the Texans. Although major improvement is unlikely in 2010, improvement on the level of what occurred between last season and this one would likely propel the Texans into the AFC playoffs. At this juncture, that seems reasonably likely to occur.

But a suggestion for Coach Kubiak — bring in a few more placekickers for training camp next season.

Air Force 47 Houston Cougars 20

The Air Force (8-5) version of Paul Johnson’s triple-option offense ground Houston (10-4) into the turf at the Bell Helicopter Armed Services Bowl at Ft. Worth on New Year’s Eve afternoon, while the Falcons’ defense harassed Cougars QB Case Keenum into an uncharacteristic 6 interceptions (Keenum only had 9 interceptions against 42 TD’s in 450 attempts coming into the game).

That, plus the damp mid-30’s temperature and windy weather, was enough to make this bowl experience a particularly forgettable one for the Cougars.

However, I can’t really blame the Cougars for their uninspired play. They were at a psychological disadvantage playing in the same bowl game against the same team that it had beaten in last year’s game. That Houston had to do so is a travesty of the current bowl system and the inequitable current demarcation between the BCS and non-BCS conferences in big-time college football.

The Cougars were one of the best non-BCS conference teams in the country this past season. They beat three BCS conference teams, two of which (Texas Tech and Oklahoma State) went on to play in more prestigious bowls than the Cougars despite not having as good a record. Given Conference USA’s anemic bowl alliances, even had the Cougars won the conference championship game, the best they could have hoped for was a trip to Memphis to play in the Liberty Bowl.

No offense to either Memphis or Ft. Worth, but no one ever mistook them for Pasadena, Miami, New Orleans, Phoenix or even San Antonio during college football bowl season.

So, UH is clearly at a crossroads. Head Coach Kevin Sumlin, his coaching staff, Keenum, and most of the offensive and defensive personnel return next season. Moreover, another solid recruiting class is on deck that emphasizes the defensive players that the previous coaching staff ignored. Accordingly, the Cougars appear on course for another stellar season in 2010.

But Houston clearly aspires for success in a BCS Conference membership, not the outback of a non-BCS conference such as Conference USA. Such a membership will require a major financial investment in upgrading or rebuilding the UH football stadium, plus securing Sumlin and his coaching staff with BCS conference-level compensation.

The University of Houston has received the lowest amount of financial subsidy from the state of any major university in Texas, so UH cannot expect much funding help from the state in its effort to move into a BCS conference. Will the Houston community and UH alumni pitch in what it will take to make the Cougars an attractive candidate for a BCS conference membership?

We will soon find out.

Georgia 44 Texas Aggies 20

The Bulldogs (8-5) broke open a close game early in the fourth quarter and cruised to an easy victory over the Aggies (6-7) in Shreveport’s Independence Bowl last week.

The game was basically a replay of many of the Aggies’ losses this past season. The offense was generally productive, but was forced into taking too many risks by the Aggies’ porous defense and poor special teams play. Thus, even though the Aggies had a sizable advantage in total offense, Georgia controlled the ball and the second half with over a hundred more yards rushing than the Aggies.

As with UH, the Aggies find themselves at a crossroads leading into next season. The potent offensive personnel returns virtually intact next season, but young and mostly horrible defense loses both its best player (DE Von Miller) and its coordinator, the retiring Joe Kines. The Aggies are lining up another solid recruiting class, but it will mean very little unless head coach Mike Sherman hires a new defensive coordinator who can generate rapid improvement in the defensive unit.

As a result, Sherman’s decision on a new defensive coordinator is very likely to make or break his tenure as head coach of the Aggies.

I have no idea who Sherman is considering as candidates for the Aggies defensive coordinator position. But if I were in his shoes, I’d take a look at hard look at Air Force’s Tim DeRuyter, whose Air Force unit was one of the top defenses in the nation this past season and was magnificent in the Falcons’ bowl victory over Houston.

Is it time for hoops yet?

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After all the mediocre bowl games over the past several days, it’s time to turn to the basketball season. A good way to start is with one of the best hoops scenes in the history of cinema, Jimmy’s winning shot from Hoosiers. Enjoy.

The Duke

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A good way to start the new year — Duke Ellington and Take the "A" Train.

The Dude abides in academia

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jeff bridges Somehow, it’s comforting to know as we move into 2010 that analysis of The Big Lebowski has moved into academic circles.

Of course, these emerging academic treatments have a ways to go before they can rival Rob Ager’s work on the film, the first installment of which can be viewed here.

Meanwhile, if you don’t mind some pretty salty language, enjoy the clip below of the Dude and his friends discussing what to do about his rug.

Happy New Year!

The Mike Leach Train Wreck

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After what happened earlier this year, no one should really be surprised that Texas Tech University elected to fire Mike Leach yesterday.

But we still are. Just how does someone as successful and intelligent as Leach lose one of the 20 or so highest-paying jobs in big-time college football?

Absent a financial settlement between Tech and Leach, this mess will make for a particularly nasty lawsuit.

From the beginning of their relationship, Tech has never been entirely comfortable with Leach, while Leach has been without success trying to find a better job than the Tech gig almost from the day he set foot in Lubbock.

So, both parties have incentive to get this settled without exposing all that dirty laundry in court, notwithstanding Leach’s somewhat provocative public statement about his termination.

Frankly, I don’t have a clue from reading media reports whether Leach’s handling of Adam James justified a termination for cause (i.e., no further compensation) under his contract.

Football is a tough sport and coaches are often rough on players to make a point. Leach has also alleged publicly that James was a slacker and that his prominent father lobbied him and the other Tech coaches on behalf of his son.

For what it’s worth, Leach has supporters and detractors among the folks close to the program who have personal knowledge about the situation.

Although Leach’s alleged conduct toward James was clearly odd and certainly meant to embarrass the young man, it’s reasonably clear that James was never physically endangered or abused.

Thus, this does not appear to be a situation that rises to the level of risking what happened to Ereck Plancher at at Central Florida last year or the alleged physical and verbal abuse that supposedly led to the recent resignation of Mark Mangino at Kansas.

On the other hand, this is another example of a situation that — for whatever reason — Leach just didn’t handle well.

Beyond his shabby treatment of James, Leach was apparently given the opportunity by Tech to resolve the matter privately with an apology to James. Leach balked at that, so Tech suspended him from coaching the upcoming Alamo Bowl game.

When Leach sued Tech seeking to be “unsuspended,” Tech fired him (in my experience, employers often have that reaction when sued by their employees). That’s not the advice I would have given Leach, but his lawyer (Ted A. Liggett) purports to be on the aggressive side.

Furthermore, stories about Leach’s eccentric behavior have circulated for years.

For example, Leach’s tardiness for meetings is legendary (sometimes very tardy) and has caused much misery for his staff and players.

When one of his players called Leach out on Twitter about that habit earlier this year, Leach reacted by banning Tech’s players from using Twitter. Leach has also used poor judgment in making public remarks about assistant coaches on his staff.

Finally, although Leach did a good job at Tech, his public relations were better than his overall record.

But still, even with all that, how did it come to this?

Given Leach’s eccentricities, there is certainly no assurance that any other big-time college football program will take a flyer on him — it’s telling that none came calling during his successful tenure at Tech.

Leach has now blown a contract that would have paid he and his family around $11 million over the next four years and may well be the best contract that he ever has.

And what does he have left to show for it? A lawsuit.

As complicated as we tend to make such issues, my sense is that the answer to what would have prevented this imbroglio is really quite simple.

Mike Leach needs to grow up.

The risks of health care finance

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health_insurance A ran across a couple of particularly good articles yesterday regarding the current national debate over reform of the American health care finance system.

First, Canadian Mark Steyn does not believe that Obamacare’s drift toward universal coverage will even be as effective as the underachieving Canadian model:

.  .  . Government health care turns out to be all government and no health care. Adding up the zillions of new taxes and bureaucracies and regulations it imposes on the citizenry, one might almost think that was the only point of the exercise.

That’s why I believe America’s belated embrace of government health care will be far more expensive and disastrous than the Euro-Canadian models. Whatever one’s philosophical objection to the Canadian health system, it is, broadly, fair: Unless you are a Cabinet minister or a big-time hockey player, you’ll enjoy the same equality of crappiness and universal lack of access that everybody else does.

But, even before it’s up and running, Pelosi-Reid-Obamacare is an impenetrable thicket of contradictory boondoggles, shameless payoffs and arbitrary shakedowns.  .  .  .

Meanwhile, the WSJ’s Anna Wilde Mathews provides this distressing analysis of the difficulties that a self-employed Phoenix businessman named James Mannett faced in tapping into catastrophic insurance coverage after being diagnosed with a particularly aggressive cancer:

In September 2005, Mr. Mannett felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. At the emergency room of Phoenix’s St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, a scan revealed a five-centimeter tumor on his small intestine, and three tennis-ball-size tumors in his liver. The doctor told him he likely had only two years to live.   .  .  .

Doctors removed the tumor on his small intestine and a third of his colon. He went home a week later, accompanied by his mother and a cousin, a nurse, who had come to care for him.

As Mr. Mannett recovered, the bills stacked up. Assurant (his health insurance company) wasn’t making any payments, he says. Instead, the insurer demanded from Mr. Mannett the names and addresses of every doctor he’d seen for the previous five years, so it could verify that he hadn’t concealed his cancer when he bought the policy. The investigation dragged on for months, until, according to Mr. Mannett, he called the insurer and warned that the next contact would be from his lawyer. Soon after, he says, Assurant paid the hospital more than $29,000, as well as several other bills.

Mannett’s experience is the ugly side of the private health care insurance industry, which has a responsibility to shareholders to limit claims and maximize profits.

This dynamic is why I have always believed that a substantial governmental component — preferably as a re-insurer on catastrophic policies provided by the private sector — would be necessary in any well-structured health care finance system.

For all its virtues in terms of encouraging innovation and providing top-notch care, the current health care finance system simply does not deal well with the cost of catastrophic illness or injury, particularly where the cost exceeds private insurance limits.

Of course, resolving that issue necessarily involves tough choices, which is something that continues to be largely ignored in Congress during the current health care policy debate.

Thinking about security theater

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Homeland security Given the Homeland Security Department and Transportation Security Administration’s typically over-the-top reaction (see also here) to the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a jet flying into Detroit from Amsterdam, one wonders at what point the government’s elaborate "security theater" will finally make flying so miserable that it will choke the life out of the U.S. airline industry? Professor Bainbridge provides a good roundup of the blogosphere’s discussion of that and related issues.

The latest incident also reminded me of this prophetic Bruce Schneier post from about a month ago. Schneier does the best job that I’ve read of explaining why a balance between legitimate and symbolic is helpful in deterring terrorism, but that most of Homeland Security’s security theater is utterly misguided, as well as a waste of time and resources.

The entire post is excellent, but two points he makes are particularly important.

First, Schneier observes that the governmental impulse "to do something" in response to an attack is mostly misdirected:

Often, this ‘something’ is directly related to the details of a recent event: we confiscate liquids, screen shoes, and ban box cutters on aeroplanes. But it’s not the target and tactics of the last attack that are important, but the next attack. These measures are only effective if we happen to guess what the next terrorists are planning .   .   . Terrorists don’t care what they blow up and it shouldn’t be our goal merely to force the terrorists to make a minor change in their tactics or targets  .   .   .

Even more importantly, Schneier points out that the right kind of security theater — that is, the best way to counteract the damage that terrorism attempts to inflict upon all of us — is to act as if we are not scared of it:

The best way to help people feel secure is by acting secure around them. Instead of reacting to terrorism with fear, we — and our leaders — need to react with indomitability.

By not overreacting, by not responding to movie-plot threats, and by not becoming defensive, we demonstrate the resilience of our society, in our laws, our culture, our freedoms. There is a difference between indomitability and arrogant ‘bring ’em on’ ehetoric. There’s a difference between accepting the inherent risk that comes with a free and open society, and hyping the threats .   .   .

Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country’s way of life; it’s only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage.

Schneier is spot on. Rather than making air travel increasingly distasteful, Homeland Security and the TSA ought to be encouraging Americans to spit in the terrorists’ collective eye by traveling even more by air under reasonably tolerable and legitimate security arrangements.

2009 Weekly local football review

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Arian Foster (Doug Benc/Getty Images photo; previous weekly reviews for this season are here).

Texans 27 Dolphins 20

The Texans (8-7) continue to have a remote chance of gaining an AFC playoff spot with their 27-20 victory over the Dolphins (7-8), but the way in which they won reflected why many folks are skeptical that Gary Kubiak has what it takes as a head coach to propel the club to success in the playoffs.

The Texans need to win next Sunday against the Patriots (10-5) at Reliant Stadium (a distinct possibility because the Patriots locked up the AFC East title on Sunday) and for two of the three other 8-7 teams — the Ravens, Jets or Broncos — have to lose for the Texans to achieve an AFC wild card playoff spot.

Nevertheless, the Texans playoff chances are not all that great. The Jets play the Bengals (10-5), who have clinched the AFC North, so that looks like a probable win for the Jets. The Ravens go on the road to play the Raiders (5-10), so who knows what will happen there. But the Broncos host the Chiefs (3-12), so that’s not looking good from the Texans standpoint. I don’t see two losses for the 8-7 teams coming out of those three games

After playing their best half of football all season, the Texans led 27-3 at the half. The first half was so lopsided that, at one point, the Texans had outgained the Dolphins 310-46 in total offense and 15-2 in first downs. A field goal immediately before the half was all that kept the Dolphins from being skunked.

But if the rest of the game was easy, this wouldn’t be the Texans.

As has inexplicably occurred on multiple occasions during Kubiak’s tenure as head coach, the opposition made routine adjustments at halftime and the Texans appeared to make none. The result? Not surprisingly, the Dolphins dominated the second half and probably would have at least tied the Texans in the fourth quarter but for a leg whip penalty that negated a long TD pass play.

Now, who knows what really is going on with the Texans? Perhaps Kubiak and his staff make adjustments and the players don’t execute them.

But whatever the reason, anyone could tell that something was wrong with the Texans during the third quarter of this game. They looked as unprepared to play that quarter as the Dolphins looked during the first two.

And that should worry Bob McNair about continuing to hitch the Texans’ future to Kubiak and his staff.

Oh well, a win is a win, right? The Texans did finally show the semblance of a rushing attack (126 yards) with previous practice squad RB Arian Foster and backup Ryan Moats showing the quickness at the point of attack that has been missing the entire season for the Texans.

Although their playoff hopes are slim, a win over the Patriots would give the Texans a winning record for the first time in the franchise’s eight seasons.

In the Texans’ mostly woebegone world, that’s decided progress.